Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
but, i could definitely see that working in specific cases : for example, a newspaper or magazine could sell a device to their subscribers, packaged with a free subscription to the digital edition for the life of the device (they'd probably have to define what they considered a reasonable "lifetime" though, for people like me who could probably manage to make a device last years and years... say, you buy the device, and for X years you get free content), and at least in some cases (vis the recent article about the NY Times which claimes they could actually save money if they gave away kindles to their subscribers and stopped printing / delivering those paper newspapers) it could be a workable model which benefitted everyone.
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I have read that too and I think they have had a pretty good idea taken from the cellphone company`s business plan. you give away a million devices to subscribers fror free charge them regular subsription fees and you pay for all those devices in 6 months and after that you make pure profit, minus editing and marketing a some other minor things. One thing a consumer has to be afraid of in this model - possible higher subscription fees, newspapers can charge as much as they want, almost, knowing you have their device and you have to buy said paper from them, ( on totally unrelated subject - would it be called ``paper`` anymore?).